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[[quoteright:300:[[Film/LawnDogs http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lawndogs-gun.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[LittleMissBadass Shooting a man and threatening others with a gun is just the beginning...]] ]]
->''"TWELVE? Twelve years old? You lost your virginity when you were twelve?"''
-->-- '''Arnold J. Rimmer''', ''Series/RedDwarf''
[[ChildrenAreInnocent Kids should be kids]], at least that's how the saying goes. That means worrying about little kid things and doing little kid things, such as playing on the trampoline, watching TV, going fishing, or whatever it is that kids do locally. What we don't expect kids to do is to drink alcohol, smoke, have sex, use drugs, hitchhike, commit violent crimes, or do other things we associate only with teenagers or adults. Yes, many adults are upset when a teenager drinks beer, but it's disturbing when a 10-year-old does it.
In fiction, there's two ways this tends to occur. Sometimes the kid is shown engaging in such behavior as though it's normal for them, and this can be used to show that the child has had a harsh upbringing. Other times, the kid is trying an "adult" behavior for the first time, which may sometimes have [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin disastrous consequences]].
The CreepyChild, the EnfantTerrible and the EvilOrphan draw much of their force from this. TheFakeCutie may also be prone to this, but not all the time. FromTheMouthsOfBabes is the SubTrope where the child only ''says'' troubling unchildlike things.
The FilleFatale is considered this less than is plausible, since sexual precociousness is often a sign of sexual abuse.
ChildSoldiers are a particularly tragic and horrific example of this.
For when kids ''see'' things (or have things happen to them) that they shouldn't instead of ''do'' things they shouldn't, see HarmfulToMinors. A TeenageWasteland runs on this.
Contrast with WiseBeyondTheirYears, which is about positive strangely-adult behavior, and ActingYourIntellectualAge, which is neutral.
Note that if the kid is ReallySevenHundredYearsOld and just has the physical appearance of a child, it doesn't count. This is for when actual children are the ones engaging in the unchildlike behavior.
This is TruthInTelevision insofar as there are indeed preteens out there who smoke, drink alcohol, have sex with each other, and so on. This is often the result of [[AbusiveParents a neglectful or abusive family]].
!!Examples of kids engaging in such behavior as though it's normal for them:
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij2Xbu-XhCI This hilarious condom commercial.]] It shows a five year old getting a tattoo, cutting his teacher's chair with a chainsaw and being stopped by the police after stealing a car. He continuously explains that his mom said he could. It turns out he'd overheard her cry out "Yes! Yes! Yes!" during sex in another room and assumed that she was replying to him.
[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', Sousuke [[AdorablyPrecociousChild when he was a kid]], as seen in his and Kalinin's backstory. He kills [[TheStoic without batting an eye]], has an ''extremely'' nihilistic view of things, and is [[EmotionlessGirl creepily unemotional]]. Especially noticeable [[http://pics.livejournal.com/fmp_misha/pic/0003qgt1 here]].
* After adopting [[ArtificialHuman Pinoko]], Manga/BlackJack is more than a little disconcerted to discover that the [[YoungerThanTheyLook 10-day-old]] (who insists she's a "virgin maiden" of [[OlderThanTheyLook 18]] and looks about 6) [[PrecociousCrush has developed feelings for him]] -- but what ''really'' scares him is that she already knows what a virgin is
-->'''Black Jack:''' Good God, where did you learn that kind of language?
* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. Dieter tosses back a shot like a pro, then jauntily salutes the rest of the patrons as he leaves with a toothpick in his mouth. Once outside, though, he immediately begins retching and questioning the sanity of adults who drink that stuff for fun.
** Also played straight with Johan, who by age 10 had killed several sets of foster parents and calmly and smilingly [[CorruptionByAMinor talked all of Kinderheim 511 into killing each other]].
* In ''SoulEater'', [[spoiler: Medusa]] takes over the body of a little girl after she is nearly killed by Stein. The trope is in full swing when the girl's mother notices that her behaviour has been really unsettling for the past few days...
* Michio Yuki, the VillainProtagonist of ''Manga/{{MW}}'', has become this the moment he becomes AxCrazy by the titular chemical warfare.
* Lucy (and to an extent most of the Diclonii) in ''Manga/ElfenLied'' are extremely homicidal little girls. Not helped by [[spoiler:an evil DNA voice telling them to kill]], the power to kill people really easily, a child's undeveloped sense of right and wrong, and on top of that most of them have been locked up by the government, who have been running horrific experiments on them [[ForTheEvulz for the hell of it]].
* ''Manga/BlackButler'' has Ciel, an aristocrat living in VictorianLondon. At the mere age of 13 (he starts off 12, but turns 13 early in the series) he is the head of the household, runs a successful toy and confectioneries company, and is the [[DirtyBusiness "Queen's Watchdog"]] which sends him out on often very dangerous and frightening missions such as helping to catch UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Personality-wise, he's bitter and jaded... but his darker view on things is because of a traumatic past experience. Still, he's an ImprobableAge character. Oh, did I mention he will command his [[BattleButler awesome butler]] to kill people without a second thought? In the manga he's also seen drinking champagne with his guests, but that could be because of his status, the time period, and [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the overall culture back then]] which wouldn't have batted an eye at this.
** Alois as well. For the whole first episode, he goes from acting completely innocent to downright crazy within a few seconds, and switches back and forth between the two personas. Not to mention how he acts as if he is trying to seduce any male character within five feet of him.
* [[CreepyTwins Hansel and Gretel]] from ''Manga/BlackLagoon''. The sheer number of people they kill (and how they do it) is just the start of how messed up these two are. And tragically, they can't even imagine the world any other way.
** Probably [[AxCrazy Revy]]. From what can be gathered from the tiny flashbacks, she was raised on the streets of [[BrooklynRage a less-good place in]] NewYorkCity and probably learned her gun skills from gangsters, and killed someone [[spoiler:her own father, to be exact]] using a pillow as a silencer when she was still pretty young.
* Seta Soujirou of ''Anime/RurouniKenshin'', given his [[AbusiveParents horrible childhood]] and subsequent "adoption" by a SocialDarwinist to act as his [[TheDragon Dragon]], slaughters people with a [[DissonantSerenity cheerful smile]].
** Kenshin (then known as Shinta) too, when he buried all the bodies of his guardians and the men who killed them, instead of, say, trying to find help. At this point he'd already seen one set of parents die of illness and then watched his {{Parental Substitute}}s die trying to protect him. Hiko is visibly disturbed by this and decides to take in the boy since it's clear he'll never live a normal life after this.
* In ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'', there is a scene of a pre-teen Gojyo smoking in his room while his [[ParentalIncest older brother calms his stepmother down.]]
* Essentially every child Contractor and Doll from ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' qualifies for this. LackOfEmpathy or becoming an ExtremeDoormat will do that to you.
* ''JapanTenguPartyIllustrated'' has a disturbing relationship between a [[{{youkai}} Tengu]] man and the human child he kidnapped ostensibly to be the vessel for their leader (when he uses her to speak, he ''swallows her and uses her as his tongue''). The child manages to escape the tengu, but the kidnapper is still concerned and obsessed with her. He eventually finds her phone number during a battle, but she never wants to see him again, and besides she's already safe in bed - ''with her teacher'' (she likes "magicians (the teacher) better then monsters (the tengu)") [[note]]"RealLife" tengu are notorious for kidnapping children and returning them (if they do at all) "in a daze", and tales of monks (tengu dress as mountain aesthetics) and their child-novices don't even bother with {{Unusual Euphemism}}s.[[/note]]
* Vincent in ''Manga/PandoraHearts''. Taking scissors to stuffed toys? Indicative of problems, but not completely unheard of. Taking scissors to [[spoiler:the eyes of Alice's cat?]] That's not a good sign. It also borders on PsychopathicManchild behavior since he still does it as a young adult.
** In confusing flashbacks and illustrations, Alice [[spoiler: or more accurately, the Will of the Abyss... [[MindScrew sometimes...]]]] also does this, displaying [[http://dragonempress.net/curious/images/pandora-09-05-03.jpg somewhat unsettlingly flirty behavior]] with Jack and being cheerfully vicious with Vincent. Eventually leading to yet more of this trope from [[spoiler:''Gilbert'']], who tries to strangle her.
*** Recent chapters reveal that Alice is actually [[spoiler: an aversion. In her human form, Alice (white dress) is actually the Will of the Abyss with a huge crush on Jack. Alyss's vicious interaction with Vincent is actually a result of Jack's manipulation (even though she does sound awfully cheerful about it). Alice (black dress) is actually a pretty normal girl herself. She just prefers Glen to Jack because of the destruction of her plushie in the real world and Jack's eventual causing the tragedy of Sablier. Her creepiness in Jack's memoirs is a more likely a case of UnreliableNarrator considering what we learn about him later.]] The Will of the Abyss may qualify for this trope in her scene with [[spoiler: Break]] but that aspect of her personality never comes up again.
* Several [[ChildSoldier characters]] in ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'', especially Nabuca
* This is a staple of {{Shonen|Demographic}} and sometimes {{Shoujo|Demographic}} manga along with HarmfulToMinors. It's usually treated lighthearted and without any real damage though, unless it's a plot device or a {{Deconstruction}}.
* The first time we see Akane Awakusu in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', she's gleefully chasing down Shizuo with a heavily modified stun gun and shouting "Die!" It turns out that this isn't exactly normal for her, as she was a CheerfulChild before she [[TheRunaway ran away from home]] and only did it because [[spoiler:Izaya told her that Shizuo was an assassin who would kill her family.]]
* Seeing how it's a story about ChildSoldiers, it's no surprise that this trope shows up a lot in ''GunslingerGirl''.
* ..And lets not even START with ''Manga/{{Narutaru}}''.
* In ''Manga/ProjectARMS'', there are quite a few children who end up this way, mostly because the Egrigori are very into using them for evil and dangerous experiments. The first ones we see are Al and Jeff Bowen, who attempt to blow up a high school partly for their mission, but moreso because they themselves were teased in school. Al spends the rest of the series methodically working his way through various battles and trying to kill a Keith with a gun at one point. [[spoiler:Also, a flashback shows us that the twins murdered their own parents and killed a bunch of kids at their school with a poisonous gas that they invented to leave no traces]]. Then we get Carol, an adorable little girl who is introduced cheerfully telling Ryo that she has the power to twist and crush things like metal and human bones with her mind and that she very much enjoys the power that comes with doing this. It's implied that she only went through life by having people fear her, and Ryo [[StepfordSmiler calls her bluff on her enjoying it]]. Finally, we get [[spoiler:Dark Alice, who is furious at the world for causing her death and is willing to nuke the entire planet to get her revenge.]]
* Broly in the eighth ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' movie was shown in a flashback to destroy a planet, and then [[LaughingMad laugh hysterically]] as his father attempts to restrain him, all while he's a child. It's implied that this behavior stemmed from the trauma he endured on the day of his birth (Kakarot [Goku] crying next to him, his narrowly surviving execution by King Vegeta simply because the latter feared Broly's abnormal power level [he was born with a power level of 10,000], and later narrowly escaping Frieza's destruction of Planet Vegeta with his father.
** Broly is an extreme case, but Saiya-jin children in general are pretty disturbing by human standards. Originally, Kakarot was sent to Earth to ''wipe out all life forms''. They may look cute and innocent, but looking is as far as it gets.
* Played for laughs with ''Anime/ShinChan'', a preschool age boy with the libido of a middle-aged man, who constantly hits on hot women. His baby sister Hima is also occasionally shown to find grown men attractive.
* It's downright creepy what children do in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', even moreso that nobody seems to care that the main basis of the story is using children as {{Child Soldier}}s at the ripe old age of 12 until one of them goes half mad like Zabuza who [[DeadlyGraduation murders the entire graduating class of his school]] BEFORE he was even old enough to enroll.
** [[SubvertedTrope However]] in the beginning, at least in Konoha, children genin are basically [[AlmightyJanitor public service workers]] for the village. D-Rank, which is what they get the most? It basically consists of dog walking, babysitting, weed pulling, etc. C-Rank, which they rarely get is basically escort duty to protect caravans or VIPs against bandits (which they can easily deal with without killing). B-Rank and above, which are normally reserved for Chunin and Jonin (the more experienced and older ninja), Konoha Genin aren't supposed to get. Which is why the Wave Arc mission was peculiar since it was billed as a C-Rank, but in terms of difficulty and the danger was a A-Rank.
** In the beginning Naruto himself is especially fond of doing inappropriate things like sneaking into girl's bathing rooms and turning himself into a naked blond girl for laughs.
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' practically ''runs'' on this trope, between its use of ChildSoldiers and [[ThePowerOfHate very angry]] protagonist, Eren. His backstory involves having brutally murdered two men at the age of nine, and justifying it by pointing out that because they were murderers engaged in human trafficking, they weren't ''people'' anymore. [[spoiler: Then we learn that the people that carried out the attack on mankind in the first two episodes were a 12-year old boy, a 12-year old girl, and an 11-year old boy.]]
* The students of class 3-E in ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom''. They are tasked with the mission to kill their own teacher and instead of displaying fear or hesitance, they show a great enthusiasm in planning how to kill him.
** Even more disturbing in that even after they've bonded with said teacher and developed affection for him, it didn't slow them down for a bit. Granted, the fact that their target is not human may be a factor in this behavior, but still, as another teacher had said, this is not normal:
-->''"A group of junior high students are joyfully discussing an assassination. If you look at it normally, this is the pinnacle of madness."''
** And among them, there is [[spoiler: Nagisa]], who displays this trope on an even higher level, as it had showed that [[spoiler: he will not hesitate to kill]] even if the opponent is human.
* Teenage Sawa Nakamura in ''[[AkuNoHana The Flowers of Evil]]'' frequently does stuff like this, including her manipulating of Kasuga, as well as her scribbling in her journal. As well as some of her "larger" plans as well as her attempts to "get to the 'other side.'"
* In ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', 13-year-old Kozue Kaoru has sex with numerous adult men, once pushed someone down a flight of stairs, and is generally extremely troubled. Meanwhile, Nanami Kiryuu, also 13, has a {{Yandere}} obsession with her older brother, and it's revealed that [[spoiler:when Nanami was 6 years old, she drowned her brother's cat because she felt he was paying more attention to it than to her.]] All of this is basically played for tragedy and horror.
* In ''OnePiece'', Donquixote Doflamingo (no more than 10 years old at the time) and his family were tied up and suspended from a burning building while an angry mob showered their ears with their grievances with the World Nobles (which the Donquixote family were a part of). His brother acted as one might expect: crying and pleading for the pain to stop. What does Doflamingo do? He screams death-threats and vows of revenge on the mob and their world.
** Trafalgar Law displays this in spades after his home is destroyed and before he gets to know Corazon.
** An early flashback scene has ten-year-old Nami promising to pay for a stolen book "with her body". She was obviously quoting Bellemere and probably had no idea what she was talking about. Hopefully.
* When in one of (many) flashbacks of ''Manga/TheFiveStarStories'' [[EvilGenius Bosjathfort]] came to the Float Temple to challenge [[TheHighQueen Amaterasu-no-mikami]] to her post of the [[PsychicPowers Divers Guild head]], her son [[TheProtagonist Amaterasu-no-mikado]], who was just a kid at the time, [[PhysicalGod banished him into]] [[DisproportionateRetribution the very fires of Hell]]. Which was but one of the signs that something is odd with the lad, and a first sign of his future BlueAndOrangeMorality.
* Damian Wayne in Comicbook/GrantMorrisonsBatman. He's a ten-year-old who is firmly convinced that he's the natural successor to [[Franchise/{{Batman}} his father's]] legacy and [[{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] is an idiot. In addition to being a particularly grim (and potentially deadly) Comicbook/{{Robin}}, he is frighteningly efficient at running Wayne Enterprises.
** With Damian, several characters acknowledged it was a bad thing. Bruce originally didn't let him out in the field, and he only became Robin under Dick. Dick got him to act a little more normal though Dick's extreme own personal combo of experience, patience, and just being a good person. [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl2009}} Stephanie]], after learning Damian had never really played in his life, pretty much forced him onto a moon-bounce with her (though she admitted she was pretty sure he wasn't joking about stabbing her several times during her run) and usually ignored him when he got bratty. Damian acted a little more like a kid around Colin Wilkes (probably to put Colin, who was the same age, more at ease), but it was a major change form his original characterization.
** Tim and many other people still found him very unnerving even by the time of the reboot, though.
** One of the major themes in Batman and Robin from the {{New 52}} reboot is the difficulty Bruce is having in keeping Damian under control.
** Minor Batman villain "The General" was a boy-prodigy that was obsessed with military tactics, and used them to gain a foothold in Gotham's criminal world. That place has the worst luck, doesn't it?
** WellIntentionedExtremist AntiHero ComicBook/{{Anarky}} is an intelligent, politically-aware would-be terrorist whose tactics against the corporate elite and the gears of the state range from "hacktivism" to straight-up bombing. He started doing all this when he was ''twelve''.
* In ''ComicBook/KickAss'', if you are in any way associated with organized crime, Hit-Girl will brutally chop you up and shoot you in the head while cursing like a sailor. [[LittleMissBadass She's a cute 10 year old.]]
** A short scene in [[Film/KickAss the film]] [[InvertedTrope inverts this for a while]]. Her father is very disturbed that she is acting like a normal girl, until she reveals she's screwing with him.
* ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'' children appear to be no less foul-mouthed, kill-happy, or rape-happy than their adult counterparts.
* The latest version of the Hellfire Club in ComicBook/{{X-Men}}. Members include a boy who sold his seven brothers into intergalactic slavery to claim the family fortune and another who dissected his first Atlantean when he was eight. [[http://www.comicvine.com/kade-kilgore/29-78998/all-images/108-519086/bessy/105-1942165/ The leader]] is a SelfMadeOrphan.
* Recurring but lesser-known villain The Gorgon from Marvel qualifies; though it's not shown, he was described as being born with near-full-adult intellect, saying his first words at two weeks, walking at three weeks (and only took that long because his body had to build up) and being fully literate before his first birthday. He also ''first'' tried to commit suicide at age ''six'', shortly after writing his first opera, and mathematically proved the existence of [[{{God}} the One-Above-All]] by 13, three more suicide attempts later due to realizing how utterly insignificant and worthless not just himself but the entirety of humanity was to the universe at large. "Prodigy" barely covers his mental ability, and if he hadn't developed the mutant power to turn people to stone by looking at them ([[CaptainObvious hence the name Gorgon]]) and hooked up with HYDRA around the time most of us are just starting to plan for college, he probably would have ended up ''successfully'' killing himself.
* ComicBook/{{X 23}}'s first assassination was at age 9. She was immediately put to work by the Facility afterwards, and by 16 she's an accomplished enough killer to worry ''CaptainAmerica''. {{Justified| Trope}} since she was bred and raised from birth ''specifically'' to be a LivingWeapon, but her utter ruthlessness and cold detachment makes her an even better killer than {{Wolverine}}. It's mildly subverted in that she doesn't ''want'' to be a weapon, but it nonetheless comes completely naturally to her.
[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In ''FanFic/MarijuanaSimpson'' Maggie can't be older than ten, yet she smokes pot constantly with the rest of the Simpson Family.
* Rose Potter (from ''The Girl Who Lived'' septology fame/infamy) murders Professor Quirrel at the age of eleven, and encourages her friends to use lethal force by the age of fifteen. She's also in an active sexual relationship by about that time.
* Commander Adriatic Huxton of the ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' fanfic "[[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-long-war-nubsg.250397/ The Long War]]" seems to have this in his backstory. He so far has been attributed to killing a couple partially responsible for the death of his family, when he was five years old. Given that after this he would have been living alone in a ruined city and that he's a paranoid schizophrenic, there's a good chance that he's done more.
* Later on, in the ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'' series, we have Reimu. Being mentally reconditioned to and being so detached from pain stimuli as a result, she has been noted to be harming herself, something that a normal person wouldn't find from a three year old, not one without severe mental or behavioral problems, unless otherwise. To top it off, Reimu has a habit of hitting, scratching, and biting others, apparently, unaware that the others can and do respond to pain and injuries or she is merely trying to relearn how to feel and respond to pain, though the former is likely than the latter.
** In 20XXV, it was noted she had tried to stab someone with scissors but it is never known why, then again, she is suffering from kind of mental illness. In chapter 82, she does succeed in stabbing Yume Ni with a pair of scissors and that was after the latter kicked her in the face.
** In that vein, we have Yume Ni and she is noted to be fairly violent for a child, this even escalating to a degree that she tried to toss Reimu over railing without a second thought as to whether or not that could kill her and this isn't first time she has actually been that cruel to them, though the trying to kill Reimu thing ism't arguably new, seeing as she did come close to seriously injuring the other kids.
* In Webcomic/KillLaKillAU, we have an eight-year old juvenile delinquent Ryuuko smoking, as well as the fact that she has led a life of crime, earning the nickname "Repeat Offender". In that vein, we Nui, Mako, and Nonon who are also delinquents and they smoke, as well as the fact that, as a first time offender, Nui has gotten multiple charges, to which she shrugs off like it nothing.
** There is also the fact that Ryuuko counts how long she has to live, which is not typical for a nine-year old. The fact that she does is this and [[TearJerker depressing]].
* ''FanFic/OjamajoDoremiRiseOfTheShadows'': [[ThePsychoRangers The Shadow Ojamajos]]. They act like complete jerks, mock the heroes when their friend is killed, and show no qualms over outright ''killing'' people in cold blood.
* [[Main/PlayedForLaughs Played for laughs]] in the Christmas side-story of the ''{{Fanfic/Broken Bow}}'' series when Apollo asks an eight-year-old Armani why he's wearing the Santa hat he hates so much.
--> '''Armani:''' (While reading [[Literature/TheArtofWar The Art of War]]) Sun Tzu says, "To know your Enemy, you must ''become'' your Enemy."
--> '''Apollo:''' (To Lanaya) Why couldn't you have just bought him a [[Literature/WheresWaldo Where's Waldo]] book?
* A kid Nui from Fanfic/MaimDeMaim was already disturbing, however, the kicker comes from her [[spoiler: ''skinning a girl alive'' to make a kamui]] and the fact that what she did gave Ragyou pause and horrified even herself, giving her an MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment doesn't help this.
* Frank Berkman in The Squid and the Whale. Twelve-year-old Frank drinks beer and -- most disturbingly -- appears to fantasize about raping his mother. It's unclear whether this behaviour is normal for him or is a response to the tension in his life at that point (his parents are separating, and all of this takes place on a day when they've accidentally abandoned him at home alone).
* Thelma and Elizabeth in ''LittleSweetheart''. Both of them are guilty of stalking, theft and blackmail. Elizabeth also mentioned watching porn on TV at one point (it was 1989). Thelma is solely guilty of [[spoiler:attempted murder and using a cop to murder someone]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking filing a false police report.]]
* Rhoda Penmark in ''Film/TheBadSeed'' is a multiple murderess before hitting puberty...and completely calm about the whole thing. [[ExecutiveMeddling They changed the ending for the film, though...]]
* HaileeSteinfeld's portrayal of the 14-year-old Mattie Ross in the Coen brothers' version of ''TrueGrit'' is, even though she isn't a child anymore, very disconcerting in its seriousness and vengefulness.
* The controversial ''Film/{{Hounddog}}'' has Lewellen, its 11-year-old main character, drinking alcohol. This is considered normal in her family.
* ''Film/LilyaFourEver'' has its title character drinking, smoking and sniffing glue at the age of 14. Then family troubles (specifically lack of any family) force her to enter prostitution. [[TearJerker It all goes downhill from there.]]
* The movie ''Young Thugs: Nostalgia'' has protagonist 6th grader Riichi Nakaba get drunk twice in the movie. In one scene his family and the guests at the party encourage him to get drunk.
* The movie ''Film/SugarCaneAlley'' has eleven-year-old José Hassan and his friends (one a girl who is probably no older than eight bought the vodka and said it was for her parents to the clerk) get so drunk that they laugh as they set a shack on fire.
* The sex worker Iris in ''Film/TaxiDriver'' gives off an aura of grace, poise, and sexually-charged sophistication. She's also twelve. Jodie Foster's performance was by far the most unsettling thing about the film, even overshadowing de Niro's own performance as the increasingly [[SociopathicHero sociopathic]] Travis Bickle.
** And Jodi Foster again as the murderous and seductive Rynn in ''The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane''.
* ''Film/HardCandy'' runs on this alarmingly. The protagonist [[spoiler:tracks down, incapacitates, tortures, and drives a pedophile to suicide. She's (allegedly) fourteen years old. Originally it was planned for her to reveal at the end of the movie that she was really 18, averting this, but the line was cut and her exact age is left ambiguous.]]
* In the 2005 adaptation of ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'', Dr. Arnold is shocked that the students, some as young as ten or eleven, gamble, distill liquor, and keep guns.
* ''Film/HomeMovie'' has this trope up to 11.
* This is what makes ''Film/TheInnocents'' still terrifying even to a modern audience.
* ''Film/{{Kids}}'' is almost entirely made of this + RefugeInAudacity.
* In ''CityOfGod'' Lil Dice [[spoiler: goes on a shooting spree in a hotel]]. Also, many children are involved in the gang war. (Horrifyingly enough, this is more or less TruthInTelevision.)
* In ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', the title character finds Toby easy to bribe with gin. As Toby tells Mrs. Lovett, they used to give the stuff to kids like him in the workhouse (child labor laws didn't exist way back when) so they could sleep -- though as he mentions, you wouldn't ever want to sleep there, "not with the things that happen in the dark."
** Don't forget the ending, when he [[spoiler:coldly and quietly slits Sweeney's throat.]]
* ''Film/LawnDogs'' has a lot of this. Not to mention some in the form of CorruptionByAMinor, as Devon manages to convince her adult friend to [[spoiler:steal chickens from a barn, and later, moon her father.]] And no, Devon is not portrayed as wise beyond her years either. She otherwise acts like a normal preteen girl, who happens to do some messed up stuff, in a realistically childish way.
--> "Also, children are expected to be a certain way, and I like the unexpectedness of how children really are if you watch them. (...) Sometimes children just don't go by the rules, they often have a natural inclination not to, which we as adults have often lost." - Naomi Wallace, screenwriter for ''LawnDogs''
* In ''Film/TheGoodSon'', 12 year old Henry (played by Macaulay Culkin) smokes, drinks alcohol, vandalizes property, builds homemade weapons, conducts horrible schemes, tortures and kills animals, and kills people all like it's an everyday thing.
* ''Film/TheProfessional'' starts with 12 year-old Mathilda (NataliePortman) smoking and hitting on the middle-aged neighbor. This is all before she becomes an [[LittleMissBadass assassin's apprentice]].
* ''Film/BloodDiamond'' had ChildSoldiers swaggering around and swearing profusely in {{Engrish}}, which was funny until they started to shoot at LeonardoDiCaprio.
* Speaking of Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio, he himself had portrayed a 14-year-old Catholic school boy's descent into heroin-addiction and prostitution in order to support his drug habit in 1995's ''Film/TheBasketballDiaries''.
* ''Film/TotalEclipse'', another Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio movie (boy, he surely went through a phase of acting in edgy, indie roles in 1995...). He plays Arthur Rimbaud, a wild and bratty teenager who gets into a sexual relationship with an older, married man. The entire movie highlights how sick and twisted their relationship is.
* Let's not forget scamming, scheming, stealing, swearing, smoking little Addie in ''Film/PaperMoon''.
* In ''Film/RoboCop2'' there's Hob, the villain's main henchman, who is a boy of about 12 and very competent too.
** One scene features a Little League baseball team [[CorruptionOfAMinor (including their coach)]] robbing a sporting goods store.
* ''Film/{{Tideland}}'' consists entirely of this, although Jeliza-Rosa does not fully realize everything that's going on around her and keeps acting and (probably) thinking like a child while she does stuff like preparing the syringe for her drug-addict father and [[CorruptionByAMinor seducing a grown man]]. (Thankfully, he's mentally about the same age, but it's still very, very disturbing.)
* ''Film/TheHeartIsDeceitfulAboveAllThings'' has the protagonist drinking alcohol at the age of seven and [[DudeNotFunny seducing]] Music/MarilynManson at the age of eleven. [[CrapsackWorld Among other things.]]
* Mindy/Hit-Girl of ''Film/KickAss'' cusses like a sailor (from [[ClusterFBomb random F-Bombs]] to her introductory quote: "Ok you [[CountryMatters cunts]], let's see what you can do now"). [ Oh, and she's a '''[[LittleMissBadass trained killer]]''' who can drop a room full of other trained killers with just a couple of handguns. Her actress, Creator/ChloeMoretz, did all of her own stunts, including [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZitQGc2XV8o the Butterfly Knife display]].
* Another Chloe Moretz film, ''Hick'', runs on this. It starts with its 13-year-old protagonist running away from home to live in [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]], bringing a gun with her... and it gets worse from there.
* Trish from ''AngelsRevenge'', though it might be {{justified|Trope}} since she's a young {{teen|sAreMonsters}}ager. She gets just a little ''too'' excited at a drug dealer's [[GroinAttack unwanted bris]], she latches onto another drug dealer's car in order to track him, and she fatally shoots a kingpin at the end of the movie.
* Pretty much the entire cast of kids in ''Twelve And Holding''.
* River Tam in ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. Better than 50% of the on-screen kills are hers. She's a teenager.
* ''Film/BattleRoyale'' is disturbing enough... until you consider that (apart from Kawada and Kiriyama) they're ninth graders, no older than fifteen! Many of the characters take great delight in killing others, even if not all of them want to.
* James (later Agent J) in ''Film/MenInBlack'' uses this to justify "why little Tiffany had to die" in the recruitment shooting gallery; she had quantum physics books which were "way above her reading level" and that she was "about to start some shit".
* In ''Film/KillBill'', The Bride, before [[spoiler:going off to exact her final vengeance on Bill]], babysits a young girl [[spoiler:who is her daughter B.B.]]. She asks the girl if she would like to watch a video before she goes to bed. The girl's answer? ''ShogunAssassin''. Being a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, The Bride sees nothing wrong with this, so they watch ''Shogun Assassin'' together.
* The title character of EvesBayou runs on this. She curses, tries to kill her father, Loui, and sneakily reveals her father's affair to his lover's husband, which eventually leads to Louis' death. The fact that she's named "Eve" and has repeated associations with apples and snakes is just icing on the cake.
* In ''Film/BigHero6'', Hiro [[spoiler: orders Baymax to destroy Callaghan]] after finding out [[spoiler: that he was Yokai and that he set the fire, thus being indirectly responsible for Tadashi's death.]] He doesn't even hesitate, even when [[spoiler: he has to rip out Baymax's healthcare chip]].
* In ''Film/ThirteenThirteenThirteen'', Kendra calls her father's friend a pedophile, swears like a sailor, and then propositions him before [[spoiler:bashing his brains out on the pavement]].
* The entire point of the following joke: [[note]] This joke is told by [[Music/{{Motorhead}} Lemmy]] in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqN-o7eBvhM the 2010 documentary of the same name.]] [[/note]]
** It's 4 AM, and a little kid stands on a street corner in Soho with a flattened frog on a rope. A copper comes around the corner and says "'Ello, sonny, what are you doing out here at this time o'night?" The kid replies "I'm lookin' for a whore." The copper, flabbergasted, asks "How old are you?!" The kid replies "I'm nine, right." The copper then asks "What do you want a whore for?" The kid replies "I wanna get a disease." "What kind of bloody disease?" the copper inquires. "A sexually-transmitted one, officer." "What on earth do you want a bloody disease for?" "Well, if I get it, I go 'ome and I fuck the babysitter and she gets it, and she fucks my dad and 'e gets it, and 'e fucks my mum and she gets it, and she fucks the gardener, and 'e's the cunt I'm after 'cuz 'e squashed me frog!"
* The ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books: The animorphs are kids. They kill people.
* The novel ''Literature/TheBadSeed'' was very controversial, portraying, as it did, a pre-teen girl who's a multiple murderess.
* ''Addie Pray,'' the novel on which the movie and TV series ''Film/PaperMoon'' was based, is narrated by a pre-teen girl who's a full-fledged swindler learning from an established con man.
* ''Literature/{{Duumvirate}}'' lives and breathes this trope. Even the littlest kids are perfectly willing to kill at the drop of a hat. It's all just a game to them.
* Rather freakily lampshaded in ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', where the childhood conditioning all the citizens are exposed to encourages children to act sexually towards each other at about ''pre-school'' age. The people administering said conditioning laugh about how those poor unenlightened souls way back when would have treated such behavior as disturbing.
** This is derived from a misinterpretation of Freudian psychology (see also Oedipus complex) that was [[ValuesDissonance more common in earlier decades]] and spawned several pro-pedophilia groups. The notion peaked in the late 1960s, when "free love" was all the rage but modern notions of consent hadn't been thoroughly formulated. All the more disturbing, no?
* Although not really a disturbing or creepy example, in one of the Literature/{{Discworld}} novels [[DirtyOldWoman Nanny Ogg]] ruminates on the concept of people having "natural ages", levels of maturity they were designed for; her examples are herself, who is somewhere in her eighties but has always felt mentally nineteen or so, while some children appear to have been born thirty-five; she's referring to them being austere and boring rather than engaging in actual adult behavior.
** Wensleydale in ''Literature/GoodOmens'' is an example of such a child: "His parents called him 'Youngster', possibly in the hope that he'd take the hint".
** Aaron Fidget, a stuffy little boy from ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' who [[AgentScully adamantly refuses to believe in the Hogfather]] (or at least [[TheGrimReaper Death]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext standing in for the Hogfather]]), even after the Hogfather appears out of nowhere on a sleigh drawn by wild boars and gives away presents to the other kids. Death gets fed up with his ArbitrarySkepticism and secretly turns the presents Mrs. Fidget bought for her son into [[NoodleIncident ...something unpleasant]].
* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' , by Michael Grant, has this in spades. The entire cast is aged fifteen and under, and Sam and Lana both dwell on how disturbing it is to see young children drinking, smoking, and doing drugs. Not to mention the plentiful violence.
* The ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' series. Oh, Dark Forest Gates, the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' series. The titular first installment features a season-and-a-half year old squirrel -- described in the text as a baby and not talking yet -- who is personally responsible for the horrible deaths of ''at least'' ten vermin, and assists in the killing of many others by rolling a hedgehog over them ''in the middle of a battlefield''. He's also given a sharp dagger by a hare who thinks nothing unusual of a kid stabbing people with one hand and sucking the other. By comparison, the young, gangly teenager that goes on to see new friends and an adoptive father/Abbot poisoned to death, kills massive numbers of vermin, faces and decapitates a snake that could eat him alive, and comes plummeting from the top of an Abbey with a bird stuck in his shoulder, all by the age of thirteen seasons, seems almost reasonable. Oh, and gets married and has a son before he's sixteen seasons. Combines with AngstWhatAngst. This may have been intentional ValuesDissonance, as the series is set in pseudo-10th century England [[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: [[Useful Notes/Furry Fandom WITH FURRIES ]]
]], but has been somewhat dialed down in the sequels... which still include the slavery of preteen children and [[HarmfulToMinors the murder of their slavers]].
* In the ''Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy'', [[IllGirl Pomma's]] addiction to [[FantasticDrug wissenberries]].
* ''Literature/TheAlienist'': multiple characters all over the novel.
* ''Literature/TheTomorrowSeries'': Aside from the fact that the viewpoint characters are only 16 - 17 years old, and essentially learning to become guerrilla fighters as the series progresses, the group of kids living in Stratton are a more depressing version of the trope: by ''The Night Is For Hunting'', when the main characters meet them, they are well-accustomed to gunfights and mugging people in alleyways.
* When [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles the Archive]] warns you that she will kill you if you challenge her authority or otherwise threaten her, [[CuteBruiser you'd]] [[LittleMissBadass better]] ''[[WiseBeyondTheirYears believe]]'' [[PersonOfMassDestruction it]].
** Her bodyguard thinks it's creepier when she actually acts her age.
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': the titular criminal mastermind is twelve years old in the first book, fifteen or sixteen in the last.
* ''Literature/EndersGame'': Ender Wiggin, at ''six'', beats a bully ''to death''. Because he knows that being merciless will let him win. Although his intention wasn't to kill the bully, just to beat him so badly that he and the other bullies would be terrified of Ender from then on, and thus, leave him alone.
** Somewhat justified in that the school he attends [[spoiler: deliberately recruits children who act and think "older" than their age in order to train them to be part of the war machine.]]
** The same thing goes for almost every other child character in the book (especially Ender's siblings, Valentine and [[TheSociopath Peter]]), who are either unnervingly intelligent, sociopathic, or both.
* [[spoiler:Tom Riddle]] from ''Literature/HarryPotter'' was an ultimately creepy kid. As a child, he tormented his fellow orphans - even murdering one's pet rabbit. When he went to Hogwarts he learned to be sly and manipulative, continuing his evil acts and a couple of murders without being suspected by the older, more powerful wizards who could pose a threat. Then, of course, he became Lord Voldemort.
* Arya Stark from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. Committed her first premeditated murder at age ten. It wasn't her first kill, just the first one she planned out deliberately. Oh, and she's one of the heroic characters.
** Even her sister, the [[PrincessClassic beautiful and sensitive]] fourteen-year-old Sansa Stark, is building a snow castle and, in an uncharacteristic burst of anger, rips the head off a doll and impales it on the castle walls, [[BrokenBird reflecting how she'd seen]] [[spoiler:her own father]] [[OffWithHisHead executed]] and [[DeadGuyOnDisplay displayed that way]].
** There's also the six-year-old Robert Arryn, who takes a rather disturbing delight in watching people get thrown thousands of feet to their deaths.
** [[RoyalBrat Joffrey Baratheon]] really takes the cake. At the age of six, he cut up open a cat and to see the unborn kitten fetuses. Later on in the story, he killed peasants from his palace's boarders with his crossbow and told them to go eat their dead, had people fight to the death, tormented his younger brother, and abused Sansa Stark, all before turning fourteen.
* In ''Literature/TheIronKing'', Meghan is shocked to hear her four-year-old half-brother tell her best friend "Go [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] yourself!" Justified in that [[spoiler:the kid is actually a changeling. Her real half-brother is a perfectly normal, sweet kid]].
* Happens a couple of time in Creator/TamoraPierce's ''Literature/TortallUniverse'', but within [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the context of a society]] where adulthood is age sixteen:
** Daine in ''Literature/TheImmortals'' series [[spoiler: hunts down and slaughters the bandits who killed her family]], aged twelve. Justified by her grief and the fact that [[spoiler: her gift was making her think she was a wolf]], but made more unsettling by the fact that, when she does eventually tell her friends about it, most of them simply shrug it off. Granted, her friends have gone through some fairly dark stuff themselves...
** Kel in ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'' is surprised to realize that cheerful, friendly first-year Owen has no problem whatsoever killing bandits. Kel's killed bandits too, but she had been expecting him to at least be uncomfortable with it.
* The main plot point of ''Literature/TheHungerGames''--teens and preteens as young as twelve are forced into an arena to fight each other to the death. And some of them are disturbingly good at it.
* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' mentions "the Little Sultana" who enjoyed torturing people with the Phantom's [[DeathTrap wonderful devices]].
* In ''The Coldest Winter Ever'' by Sister Souljah, Winter, the 16-year-old [[MafiaPrincess daughter of a drug dealer]], engages in lots of adult behaviors. For example, she offhandedly mentions that she lost her virginity at age 12, which was kind of late. The novel ends with her [[spoiler: getting 15 years in prison for possession of illegal drugs]].
* Mormon in ''Literature/TheBookOfMormon'' begins leading the entire Nephite army at the age of 15.
* Creator/RobertWestall's ''Literature/TheMachineGunners'' presents some examples of this. The plot of the book involves a group of [[WorldWarII wartime]] children between 11 and 16 who steal a working machine gun from a crashed plane, hide it from the authorities, construct a bunker and emplacement for it; hiding two of their number from the adults and later a captured German airman in said bunker and open fire on a group of [[spoiler: Polish soldiers]] during what everyone thinks is a Nazi invasion.
* Although [[DeadpanSnarker Asher]] and [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Otto]] are the worst offenders, ''Literature/SomeoneElsesWar'' is full of this. Which is only natural, because it's a story about ChildSoldiers in the [[TruthInTelevision Lord's Resistance Army]].
* In ''Crooked House'' by Creator/AgathaChristie, twelve year old Josephine investigates the murder of her grandfather, using her [[SnoopingLittleKid naturally snoopy nature]] to provide clues that the outsiders to the family never manage to find. Then it turns out she's the ''murderer'', having decided to kill her grandfather over [[DisproportionateRetribution his not getting her ballet lessons.]] She decides to investigate the murder to get further attention from her family and the police.
* It's not entirely clear whether the orgy in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{It}}'' is intended to evoke this, but bloody hell, it certainly does.
* ''Literature/DarthPlagueis'' has Palpatine running over two pedestrians. His reaction afterwards indicated that he enjoyed it even though it was his first time.
* [[AChildShallLeadThem Five-year-old Kassandra]] in [[TalesOfTheBranionRealm "The Painter Knight"]] provokes OhCrap moments in captured traitors and various other condescending adults when they realize A: she knows what treason is; B: she knows the penalty; and C: she has followers willing to carry it out at her (lawful, if untraditional) order.
* Encouraged by [[Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents Lemony Snicket]] when asked to choose "Five Books You Should Read Before You're Twelve" for ''The Big Issue'' magazine. Four of them are reasonable recommendations; the last is ''Literature/{{Lolita}}'':
--> Don't read this, just carry it around. When adults ask "Are you really reading that?" in panic, say nothing and just blink at them.
* ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' has a lot of this, since the protagonists are British schoolboys who descend into savagery and murder after being shipwrecked on an island.
* In one of the ''Literature/ConfessionsOfGeorgiaNicolson'' books, Georgia catches her three-year-old sister Libby doing a hip-wiggling dance and singing to ''Sex Bomb'' by Tom Jones. Georgia's reaction is that this is inappropriately sexualized behaviour for a toddler and complains that their parents are turning Libby into a child prostitute.
* In ''Goodnight Lady'' by Martina Cole, at age eleven protagonist Briony is already a seasoned prostitute (who asked to be sold to a brothel in her sister's place) and has more sense of the "business" than women three times her age; later causing her to become rich and successful as the owner of many brothels of her own.
* Several characters in the works of Creator/VCAndrews:
** In the Dollanganger series, Cathy's son Bart develops a sexual fixation with his own mother and tries to kill his adoptive sister when he's still a child of around eight or nine.
** In the Casteel series, Fanny has already begun fooling around with boys by the time she is ten. It's implied that she may already be sexually active by this age, as she later seduces her adoptive father and has a baby with him when she is no older than fourteen.
** A similar example to Fanny above is Fern from the Cutler books, who displays age-inappropriate knowledge of sex, manipulates her brother into letting her live with him by lying that her foster father sexually abused her, and as an adult is proud of having become sexually active while still middle school aged.
** Sylvia Adare in ''My Sweet Audrina'' may have killed [[spoiler:her father's girlfriend Billie]] as a young child. It's suggested that [[spoiler:Vera]] set it up to ''look'' like Sylvia did it but Audrina can never really be sure.
** Ian March in the ''Early Spring'' series is a thirteen-year-old boy obsessed with performing "experiments" involving his sister Jordan, who is going through precocious puberty at age seven. He then murders their governess after she tries to intervene. The governess herself is horrified at what she sees as unchildlike behavior from both the kids, since Jordan already knows the word orgasm (although she learned it from an older teenager) and uses tampons, rather than sanitary towels, for her premature periods.
* The unnamed ten-year-old girl in the late Jo Imog's ''The Demon Flower'' goes from letting older men molest her in exchange for the tinfoil from their cigarette packs, to enacting bizarre scenes with an adult woman friend, to increasingly weird sexual and occult adventures, incidentally driving her mother insane and being [[DrivenToSuicide responsible for several suicides]].
* Pretty much all the kids from ''Literature/ChroniclesOfMagic'', but special mention goes out to Queen Cinder, who not only enjoys torturing and executing her subjects, but has been trained to kill without remorse since she was five. She is now fourteen.
[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The Conduit blithely instructing Angel to snap Lilah's neck... which he moves to oblige, completely nonchalant, until she giggles and calls him off at the last second.
* In an episode of ''Series/SexAndTheCity'', Samantha is jealous of a very rich 13-year-old girl for whom she organizes a Bat Mitzvah party. When she overhears the 13-year-old telling her friends about giving blowjobs to keep a man, Sam interrupts to say that this is wrong. When the 13-year-old replies that she has been giving blowjobs since she was 12 and that she knows how the world works, Sam is released from her jealousy as she realizes that at least she had a childhood.
* There's an episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' where a mother brings her young daughter into the clinic for possible epileptic behavior. House examines the girl, and determines that she's merely been "[[ADateWithRosiePalms ya-yaing the sisterhood]]". The mother is shocked, to say the least, but House says that it's reasonable behavior, if a bit atypical.
* Jayne Cobb from ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. It's revealed that at ten years old Jayne was shooting spaceport varmints for the bounties, which is marginally acceptable even if ten is rather young to have ''unsupervised'' access to a .22 rifle... and using the money he earned to [[CrossesTheLineTwice bet on gladiator blood sports]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and buy beer.]]
** River ''Goddamn'' Tam, most especially in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', but she's hijacked spaceships and shot people (without looking, yet still perfectly accurate) by the end of the show. She's in her teens.
*** [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds She's also terrified of herself because she knows she isn't fully in control and if she ever loses it completely she'd be a practically unstoppable killing machine.]]
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', the murderer turns out to be an 11-year-old girl, who shoots her tutor with a shotgun when he refuses to help her cheat on a school project.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' had one in the form of a 12 year old girl who was taking senior level high school courses. At her older brother's trial for murder of a classmate, she testifies that she's the real murderer and produces evidence to support her case. She pulls off the plan so well that she convinces the court that there is too much doubt to her brother's involvement (mainly, that he was a D student in chemistry and the murderer needed to know how to handle pure Sodium) and that there was too much doubt to convict her (she was too small to move the victim's body). As if that wasn't the worst of it, she says to Sarah that had she been convicted, she could get her degree by 18 and/or write a book about the crime, since Nevada has no "Son of Sam" law. Finally, it was revealed that [[spoiler: she had no involvement in the murder and Sarah just got played.]]
** It's even worse in the continued episode later on, when it's revealed her {{Yandere}} [[BigBrotherAttraction fixation on her brother]] prompts her to murder his girlfriend and blame him for it. Her motivation is that it will [[MurderTheHypotenuse get rid of any "obstacles between them"]] and that, by continuously visiting him while he's in prison, he'll fall in love with her. Instead, he kills himself.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Poor Parker. Mostly, it's played for laughs, but the ages at which she started committing various crimes is alarming. Car stealing at twelve, and getaway driving ''before'' that. Cut to a flashback of what looks like a nine year old Parker skidding around an old lady with a terrified robber in the passenger seat.
* In one episode of ''Series/GreysAnatomy'', a man is brought into the hospital after supposedly being accidentally shot by his six-year-old daughter, using a gun that had been carelessly left outside. However, scans show that this man has been shot 17 times. When the daughter is questioned about the event, she asks why her father wouldn't just die, since she had shot him so many times. As it turns out, the girl and her mother had been putting up with severe abuse at the hand of the alcoholic father. The girl, seeing her father begin another attack on his wife, grabbed the gun (which had been left in an easily accessible place) and shot her father.
* Parodied in a ''Series/{{Jam}}'' sketch where a man believes he has accidentally killed his friend during an argument. He calls a professional killer/"cleaner" named Maria to dispose of the body, but she turns out to be only six years old. She [[ClusterFBomb uses language that would make a sailor blush]], carries a gun, and when the victim wakes up (revealing that he was only unconscious) she shoots him in the head then hacks him to bits with a saw blade. In the end, the police are called and Maria instantly reverts to a cutesy child act.
** ''Jam'' was based on the radio series ''Blue Jam'', which featured several sketches about Maria. More disturbingly, in this version she is only ''four'' years old!
* An episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' focused on a series of murders of young children. They turned out to have been committed by a young boy [[spoiler: (the son of their original suspect)]], who, in his own words, did it "because I wanted to."
* Inverted in ''Series/GameOfThrones''; Robin Arryn is ten years old and ''still breastfeeding.'' On the other hand, he also takes [[KidsAreCruel particular glee in tormenting people]]
** Play horribly straight throughout the series; most preferably by King Joffrey Baratheon, who was a 'very sweet child'...until the age of about 12, when his father told him that pregnant cats had kittens in their stomachs. He mutilated the cat and awarded the fetuses to his Father. It got worse.
* Francis Wilkerson, or heck, any of the kids from ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'', easily qualify. Francis, aside from attempting to douse his teddy bear (as noted in the subtrope "Kids trying this behavior out for the first time" below), also frequently tortured his younger brothers (barring Dewey), stole their toys, locked them in a closet, and scarred Reese with a bayonette, all as a child, and he also implies when telling Dewey this that this is ''exactly'' what being a good brother is all about. As a teen, he frequently goes on destructive rampages/rebellions, such as stealing his mother's car, sleeping around, smoking, drinking, getting four nose pierces, and other similar behaviors all just to spite his mother or [[ForTheEvulz just for the heck of it]]. Reese is very much prone to violence, and enjoys hurting people.
* The Gallagher Children in ''{{Shameless}}'' are all examples of this (or were, at some point in the show's backstory), but they run the spectrum from PromotedToParent "reponsible" types like Fiona and Debbie to absurdly worldly but irresponsible or immature StreetUrchin-types like Lip and Carl (who is arguably way more naive than the others). Ian's somewhere in the middle, being self-disciplined and responsible but not taking an active role in raising his younger siblings.
* A major theme in ''TheWire'' is that the children at the low-rises of Baltimore are already involved in the drug game by the age of ten, even earlier. On the violence aspect, Snoop and Kenard come to mind.
* More than one case on ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has been advanced with this trope. The first instance was when Elliot Stabler got blatantly hit on by a seven year old.
* Child prostitute Annie in ''{{Series/Copper}}'' - and that's before [[spoiler: she kills the man who killed and raped, ''in that order'', her twin sister.]]
* Although he's an adult when you meet him, on ''{{Series/Elementary}}'' the antagonist [[spoiler: turns out to have been a child when he was kidnapped, but turned the relationship with his captor around to become the dominant partner and had him kidnap and kill other children just so the boy could enjoy seeing the looks on the parent's faces on the news.]]
* Alluded to in ''{{Series/Supernatural}}'':
-->'''Dean:''' This is my first sawed off! Sixth grade...
* In "Brenda's Got a Baby" by [[Music/TupacShakur 2Pac]], Brenda (then 12 years old) [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin gets into a relationship]] with her [[{{Lolicon}} 20-something]] [[IncestIsRelative cousin]] after becoming frustrated with life [[CrapsackWorld at]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily home]]. She becomes pregnant, but manages to hide the pregnancy from her family. She ends up giving birth on the floor of the girls' bathroom at school, and tries to dispose of the baby in a dumpster (only to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone feel bad]] and take it out). She and her mother are constantly at each others' throats, and finally Brenda is kicked out of the house. She is too young to be hired for honest work and has no place to go, so she sells drugs...until she is robbed at gunpoint and is driven to prostitution. [[DisposableSexWorker It does not end well.]]
* Similarly, the third verse of Music/{{Ludacris}}'s "Runaway Love":
-->Little Erica is eleven years old\\
She's steady trying to figure why the world is so cold\\
So she pops X to get rid of all the pain\\
Plus she's having sex with a boy who's sixteen\\
Emotions run deep and she thinks she's in love\\
So there's no protection he's using no glove\\
Never thinking 'bout the consequences of her actions\\
Living for today and not tomorrow's satisfaction\\
The days go by and her belly gets big\\
The father bails out he ain't ready for a kid\\
Knowing her mama will blow it all outta proportion\\
Plus she lives poor so no money for abortion\\
Erica is stuck up in the world on her own\\
Forced to think that hell is a place called home\\
Nothing else to do but get her clothes and pack\\
She say she's about to run away and never come back.
* {{Metric}}'s song Youth Without Youth is about children engaging in violent behavior and fighting with the cops, eventually getting arrested. The entire song is framed in a way that compares their behavior with different children's game.
* From Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "My Own Eyes":
-->My neighbour's kids sold weapons-grade plutonium\\
And frosty, ice-cold lemonade.\\
They took [=MasterCard=] and sometimes human organs in trade.\\
That's how we paid.\\
I have to say that it was [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood really darn good lemonade]].
* "Come Out and Play" by TheOffspring is about youth gang violence:
-->''Like the latest fashion''
-->''Like a spreading disease''
-->''The kids are strappin' on their way to the classroom''
-->''Getting weapons with the greatest of ease''
-->''He-ey, don't pay no mind--''
-->''You're under eighteen, you won't be doing any time''
-->''He-ey, [[TitleDrop come out and]] [[DeadlyEuphemism play!]]''
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Wicked witches in ''TabletopGame/WitchGirlsAdventures'' and the comics that spawned it are big on [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking Evil Smoking]]. Children aren't an exception.
* Blood Claws in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Granted, they're not actually children (more along the lines of 18+ due to how long it takes to become a Space Marine), but they just came into adulthood and will blindly charge towards a 40' towering monstrosity while laughing their heads off, not exactly behaviour suited to the average teenager (especially since many older warriors would run away in fear from said monsters).
* The entirety of ''HowILearnedToDrive.''
[[folder:Video Games]]
* Sign on to any online shooter (preferably an {{Xbox 360}} shooter RatedMForMoney and/or [[RatedMForManly Manly]] for maximum results) and prepare to be called a nigger, faggot, and just about any other offensive word you can think of by {{Internet Tough Guy}}s 12 and under. Oh, and don't forget that [[IBangedYourMom they've all had sex with your mom]], too.
* Mildly done in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''. The protagonist and his peers are all ten-year-olds, yet some of the kids have an odd fascination with hooking up and making out.
** Then there's Crystal and Clem. They're seen messing around with poison, and there's one scene where they talk about how everyone is "going to be sorry" in very somber monotones far divorced from their usual chirpy facade as they watch the sunset on the top of the roof. After you [[MakesSenseInContext rescue their brains]] Crystal does explain their previous behavior: [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide They were trying to kill themselves]] and if you read the message boards around the camp you find of its because [[StepfordSmiler they were being bullied for acting positive all the time and trying to make others happy.]]]]
* Ienzo from ''KingdomHearts''... By looking at him, you could never possibly guess he would be the one to convince Ansem the Wise into building an underground laboratory to ''experiment with the Darkness in people's Hearts'', which eventually lead to the apprentices losing their own Hearts...
* [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Mission Vao]], a fourteen-year-old twi'lek living in [[CrapsackWorld Taris']] Lower City spends most of her time adventuring, thieving and fighting off thugs, slavers and trigger-happy gangsters. Plus, the Outcasts in the even worse Undercity know her as someone who explores places even their scouts fear to read, which means going toe to toe with ''rakghouls.'' There was also a significant gap of time between when her piece of ''ossik'' brother abandoned her and she started traveling with [[TheBigGuy Zaalbar]].
* ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose'': Byzantine plotting, power struggles, and even torture are everyday occurrences in the Aristocrat Club of the Rose Garden Orphanage, and depending on the player's interpretation, some of them don't even shy away from murder if they can get away with it. [[spoiler:And manipulating a serial killer to commit murders is definite canon for one of the characters, although that wasn't considered typical behaviour even for her.]]
* The imagery of mock suicide by teenagers (and, in one case, an elementary-school kid) in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' is more than a little disturbing, and likely the primary reason for the game's "M" rating in North America.
* Tiny Tina, from ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', is the world's deadliest 13 year old and an explosives expert. In her introduction cutscene, she proceeds to [[StuffBlowingUp blasting]] a {{Faceless Goon|s}} into oblivion. And thats just the start.
* Anise Tatlin in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' is a 14-year-old GoldDigger, and quite mercenary about it - she speculates on the merits of having to wait on a sickly husband who's likely to die early and leave her his fortune, and throws herself unashamedly at a man more than twice her own age. The fact that this is all PlayedForLaughs [[RuleOfFunny may]] or [[DudeNotFunny may not]] make it better.
* ''VideoGame/MadFather'': About 1/4 of the way through the game, Aya finds the Mini Chainsaw. She proceeds to have a ''nostalgic'' flashback of the first time she played with it. [[spoiler:Also, when one investigates her dressers after the first scene with Ogre, she will find dead animals inside. The fact that Aya doesn't react to this in the slightest implies she already knew they were there (and most likely killed them herself).]] One of the additional notes from the [[NewGamePlus second playthrough]] outright confirms this. Also, during the course of the game, Aya will be burning [[HumanoidAbomination monsters]], interacting with corpses and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking reading other people's diaries]].
* The gun-toting, cigar-chomping cyborg mad-bomber that is Peacock from ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' definitely qualifies. Especially since she's ''thirteen years old.'' The titular Skullgirl, Bloody Marie, also qualifies; she's just as old as Peacock is and possesses world-destroying powers. ''Her'' goal is to kill the Mafia for their crimes.
* ''{{Touhou}}'': The snow fairy Cirno has a ResurrectiveImmortality induced [[TheDitz poor grasp]] [[BoisterousWeakling of what]] [[SuicidalOverconfidence "mortality"]] [[BlueAndOrangeMorality means]]. Rumia looks like a blond little girl, [[CheerfulChild has the personality to match]] and [[ToServeMan eats humans]] (or would [[DumbBlond if she could ever catch anyone]]). Mystia Lorolei likes to sing, likes to eat humans and [[CreepyChild likes to sing]] [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs about eating humans]]. Suika Ibuki is ''always'' absolutely [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl smashed off]] [[DrunkenMaster her rocker]]. And on top of the list we have Flandre Scarlet who is cheerful, childish, has MadwomanInTheAttic induced ImmortalImmaturity and, wait, did I say "''Madwoman'' in the Attic"? 'Cuz I meant to say [[AxCrazy Homicidally Insane]] PersonOfMassdestruction in the Attic induced NoSocialSkills. (Hey, if you had been locked up in your room for 495+ years so you wouldn't lay waste to creation in a psychotic fit, you'd have a poor grasp of human interaction, too. And it wouldn't have made your sanity any favors, either.) JustifiedTrope in most cases as the "[[OlderThanTheyLook children]]" are {{youkai}} and behave just the way [[EnfantTerrible youkai children]] are supposed to behave.
* TheLastOfUs has Ellie, a fourteen year old girl who can shoot, swears like a sailor and her biggest reaction to someone being shot to pieces is 'Oh [insert swearword here]'.
* B.B. Hood, the current posterchild of TheFakeCutie from ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' carries a hamper full of goodies that are actually missiles and flamethrowers, and almost all her gun-based attacks are accompanied by a SlasherSmile even in her sprite! In one of her victory poses she also takes out a cigar while flicking through her killing contracts.
* [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] [[OverlordJr Jr.]] made [[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine his debut]] by vandalising an entire island with toxic graffiti in an attempt to frame Mario. When that plan started to go south, he [[LikeFatherLikeSon kidnapped Peach]] and tried to kill Mario with a giant robot. Since then, he's been shown still using his Magic Paintbrush, summoning giant killer robots, and kidnapping Peach, along with assisting in unprovoked military attacks. There are also some implications that he's a gambler. All this, from a [[VagueAge 3 to 5 year old child]].
[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* The main cast of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' are well-known for their (usually) HatePlague induced paranoia and murder sprees, among many other troubling behaviors. The four oldest characters are only [[VagueAge about sixteen]], with the youngest being somewhere between nine and twelve.
** [[spoiler:Rika]] drinks wine to [[DrowningMySorrows drown her sorrows]] and she's not any older than twelve [[spoiler:(at least, not physically)]]. She does this behind everyone else's backs, though.
* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Meet Maria Ushiromiya, 9-year-old walking encyclopedia of all things relating to Western occult lore and "black magic." Also has a rather [[AnnoyingLaugh irritating]] EvilLaugh and a habit of using it at [[CreepyChild incredibly inappropriate times]], like after seeing [[spoiler:her mother and 5 of her relatives']] horribly mutilated corpses.
* Illyasviel von Einzbern from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' is a... [[PlayingWithATrope strange case.]] At first, she's trying to kill Shirou and Rin... then depending on the route [[ZigZaggingTrope she goes to play with Shirou, her "onii-chan", frequently.]] Then it turns out [[spoiler: [[DeconstructedTrope she's a homunculus created as a vessel for the Holy Grail.]] Finally [[SubvertedTrope it's revealed that she's 18 but has the body of a young child, and is in fact the biological daughter of Shirou's adopted father Kiritsugu. She's also not as childish in mentality as she appears.]]]]
** Plus she also tries to have sex with Shirou at two points in Fate and one in Heaven's Feel. Which is... [[{{Lolicon}} a little disturbing.]]
[[folder:Web Comic]]
* Chelsie Warner, the CreepyChild of ''{{Concession}}''. [[spoiler:She suffers from gender dysphoria, and was born "Charles" until her parents allowed her to start dressing and living as a girl. This itself isn't what's troubling, but she displays violent tendencies in her very first appearance by stabbing Artie in the eye with a crayon. She then rapes him when he's too delirious to know what's going on. It was later revealed that her hypersexual behavior was related to a form of bipolar disorder, and she joined a harem of preteen boys run by the practicing pedophile Kate, who specifically seeks out children with this disorder because she believes that allowing them to give in to urges which are already there doesn't count as abuse. The author points out that ''he'' knows that it does count, but Kate does not know that or refuses to believe it. Luckily, the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue shows that by the time Chelsie's an adult she's transitioned fully to female and is much more mentally stable under the care of her adopted father, [[GoodShepherd the local priest Father Tim]].]]
* Namah in ''Webcomic/{{Dreamkeepers}} Prelude'' is a milder version then people on this page, but she still did a SlasherSmile when she went into the ventilation system, stole knives, poured hot sauce in the eyes of one of her guards. [[spoiler:Considering that she is being kept in her room to prevent knowledge of a secret affair being leaked, it's kinda justified.]]
* Samantha Wight of ''{{Suppression}}'' has a habit of lecturing people about the [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech futility of everything]] and, at best, is only [[NighInvulnerable mildly annoyed]] at being stabbed through the heart.
* Nadia (and possibly Dark) in ''Webcomic/{{Kagerou}}'', although whether they're actually children, or even real, is highly debatable. Their actions are made more disturbing by the presence of Kid, who ''is'' very childlike.
* The trolls of ''WebComic/{{Homestuck}}'' do not, as a rule, have much in the way of childhoods--but some of them develop a strong interest in collectible card games or [[OurVampiresAreDifferent rainbow drinker]] romance novels, and others begin earnestly studying for a career in law enforcement (complete with the [[CrossesTheLineTwice mass hangings of]] [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons scalemate]] plushies) or become mass murderers by the age of thirteen.
** There's also [[spoiler:Roxy. Like her Beta counterpart, Rose's mother, she's a HardDrinkingPartyGirl. Unlike her Beta counterpart, she's only fifteen. Of course, she's one of the last two humans on the planet, and was raised by childlike Chess people, so it's unlikely anyone has ever told her to stop except her peers]].
* Larisa of ''WebComic/SandraAndWoo''. [[PyroManiac She likes fire. A lot.]] She also does things like accusing her math teacher of molesting her to get out of a test, attempt to make out with her boyfriend ''while he's in the middle of a class presentation'', and joke about being a "junkie" when injecting her insulin. All the other girls at school have been warned about her, and her mom point blank asks if she's still a virgin after a class trip. [[IllGirl The other medicines she takes]] and, contrary to the insulin, keeps a secret from her best friends, gives this already uncomfortable behavior some further [[LikeYouWereDying uncomfortable undertones]]. We'll see where it leads.
* In ''WebComic/{{Apothecia}}'', an eleven-year-old girl kills a child abductor and feeds his corpse to an alien in the woods behind her house.
[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[spoiler: Ness and Lucas in]] ''ThereWillBeBrawl'' [[spoiler: are bad enough to make all of the other supposed ''BigBad''s nervous.]]
* In ''Roleplay/MallFight'', Sakura acts like she is at least sixteen, despite only being nine, and often has sex with her actually teenage boyfriend. The only time she really acted her age was when she was aged down to five a little before the latest reboot.
* This trope defines every (human - maybe) character your principal one meets in the play-by-post game Roleplay/WhatTimeIsItMrWolf
* Before her ''[[FiftyShadesOfGrey Let's Read 50 Shades Of Grey]]'' videos were deleted, YouTube user emmablackery gave us this gem:
--> ''We get it! You want to fuck him! God! You sound like a 12-year-old. [{{Beat}}] We start young, here in Essex.''
* [[Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale Tamika Flynn]] and her army are known for training in combat for days on end, taking down helicopters with slingshots, revolting against [[EvilInc Strex Corp]] tooth and nail, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking reading at a very advanced level.]]
* Some of the [[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/gallery/47854579 Killerbunnies]] are children but one of them that seems to really stand out is [[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/art/Killerbunnies-II-Creamline-Rogue-446234188?id=7doci4 Creameline Rougue]] and the fact that she sees what she is doing as a game and that Detroit is her playground.
** Visceraline is very sadistic, sees other people as "dollies", and is rumored to be the reason as to [[FridgeHorror why she is]] [[SelfMadeOrphan absent parents]].
** Corrine "Cori" Andrews is a serial arsonist with several counts under her belt.
** Frankie ran a meth lab when she was four, caused an explosion in the family's basement when she was five, poisoned a cousin with chemicals, and used pets as test subjects, [[ChronicPetKiller the none of which survived]].
** Hattie, Snow, and Atlasnaya, more or less get a pass since the latter two were much conditioned that way, having been exposed to nothing but violence since an early age, and the former, who likes to start fights, seeing violence as a must, probably comes from the fact that she lacks a bit of parental guidance besides her older sister, Henrietta.
* Bonesaw from ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' joined up with the [[SerialKiller Slaughterhouse]] [[HeroKiller Nine]] when she was ''five''. During the story, she's between twelve and fourteen and produces BodyHorror on a level unmatched by pretty much any other character. Being a Tinker specializing in biology means that she can do anything with living creatures up to and including bringing back the recently-dead...and those she [[FateWorseThanDeath reanimates]] would probably rather have stayed dead.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The Delightful Children From Down The Lane from ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''.
* Maggie from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is a lot smarter and often ruthless than one would expect from a baby. It's strongly implied she was the one who shot Mr. Burns, after all.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': When we see Azula in a flashback to when she was about 8 years old she engages in typical activities such as teasing her brother and her friend who has a crush on him, doing cartwheels, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick throwing rocks at animals, throwing fireballs at people, hopefully suggesting that her uncle and cousin might die in battle so her father can inherit the throne, setting dolls on fire, mocking her uncle for leaving a battle after her cousin died,]] [[spoiler: [[UpToEleven cheerfully telling her brother and mother that her father has been ordered to murder her brother]]...]]
-->'''Ursa''': [[LampshadeHanging What is]] ''[[LampshadeHanging wrong]]'' [[CreepyChild with that child?]]
** We first see Azula, aged ten, in a flashback in the first appearance, smirking with glee as her brother and father have a fight. [[spoiler: That ends with her father calling his apologetic son a disrespectful traitor before ''burning off half of his face'' for refusing to fight back.]]
** The Gaang itself, while going through the stock hero's journey, has no members older than young teenagers. They command shock troops, lead prison riots and breakouts, rediscover ancient history, and frequently discuss their leader ''executing'' the Fire Lord.
* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' where pretty much all the kids ([[TokenWholesome except Butters]]) curse and do other adult behavior all the time. Taken to extremes with [[TokenEvilTeammate Cartman]], however, who has gone so far as [[MoralEventHorizon attempting to start new Holocausts]].
* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}},'' [[DumbBlonde Brittany's]] little brother Brian not only acts out of control, he is [[AllThereInTheManual apparently]] the reason why the family [[FridgeHorror doesn't even bother naming their pets anymore]].
* As a kid, BigBadWannabe EvilGenius [[WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown Jack Spicer]] asked for knife-throwing lessons. His mom sent him [[DefiedTrope figure skating]]. So he [[GadgeteerGenius made a robot]] [[ImpossibleGenius out of her juicer]]. As a TeenGenius, he's trying to TakeOverTheWorld with a robot army... with winter sports as a [[SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat surprise skill]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice Invasion'' Jade's baby laughs at the fighting she, and Red Arrow are engaging at an army of {{Mook}}s. Partly because the baby came from a family of supervillains.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E23PonyvilleConfidential Ponyville Confidential]], Diamond Tiara, the AlphaBitch of the local schoolhouse, openly engages in blackmail and shows signs of outright sociopathy. ("Feelings? I don't care about feelings!")
* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'''s main protagonists have become so accustomed with close encounters with death that [[CasualDangerDialogue they show little to no worry whenever it seems like it's going to be the end for them.]] And the oldest one is ''fifteen''.
[[folder:Real Life]]
* Unfortunately, what is considered appropriate to children and what not, is [[ValuesDissonance very much a cultural issue]] and varies over time. Sad examples of this include child brides, child soldiers, child laborers etc.
* Comedian Brendon Burns tells a story about catching his 5 year old son masturbating with a soaped up shark toy, his advice was:
-->'''Burns:''' DON'T DO THAT!
-->'''Son:''' Why not?
-->'''Burns:''' Because adults don't like it when little kids do that, and I wasn't allowed to do it when I was your age and..... y'know what, go ahead, just don't do it at school.
-->'''Son:''' Why not?
-->'''Burns:''' See rule #1. (Rule 1 is "it'll suck, and you'll hate me for letting you do it")
* Played for laughs: Catholic speaker Chris Padgett tells a story of when his young son first learned a bad word- "boobie"- and would not stop saying it. Eventually, Chris's older daughter sits down to talk to him:
-->'''Daughter:''' You can't say that word anymore, it's bad.
-->'''Son:''' Yes I can, boobie.
-->'''Daughter:''' Jesus wouldn't want you to say that word, right?
-->'''Son:''' [[AGodAmI Yes I would.]]
-->'''Padgett:''' Great, my kid thinks he's Jesus.
* Chain smoking guerrilla leaders [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Htoo_twins the Htoo Twins]]. [[CrazyAwesome They also claimed to be bulletproof and have armies of invisible soldiers.]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4c_wI6kQyE&annotation_id=annotation_207174&feature=iv 2 year old smokes 40 cigarettes a day]].
* Creator/KevinSmith, on one of the "An Evening With Kevin Smith"s, describes his daughter learning her first naughty word (bullshit) while she was a toddler. Unlike most examples of this trope, this was intensely hilarious to Smith and his wife, who egged her on; she even got creative with it (dogshit, mommyshit, daddyshit). Then they said, "Do you know what 'shit' means?" "No." They told her, and the girl got very quiet...
* Many children who grow up in [[AbusiveParents abusive or neglectful homes]] display behaviors that are very adult-like or disturbing given their young ages. And the children themselves are often very surprised when another child or adult points out that such behavior is odd and abnormal.
** Troubling unchildlike behavior is often a major indicator to psychologists, teachers, and healthcare professionals that a child may be living in an abusive/neglectful home or environment.
* One of the regular, rather young trolls of Radio/TrueCapitalist named "Asho" has had a habit of doing this repeatedly, though thankfully not to serial killer levels; this has actually turned him into TheScrappy for a lot of people, even those who hate Ghost. He once called Ghost while high (and slagged off his mother while doing so), and another time called Ghost while drinking illegally and watching porn; the latter incident, he called back ''the very same show, while masturbating''. [[{{Squick}} He claims to be younger than ten]].
** There's also [[UnfortunateNames TheAbortedFetus]], who sounds even ''younger'' than Asho. He hasn't called in as often as Asho (mostly due to Ghost [[PutOnABus forwarding his number to the CPS]])... and yet, he's managed to make Ghost throw a rage-fit of atomic proportions at least twice, as well as cause Ghost to initiate the "Woodchipper", by [[IntercourseWithYou spouting sexual innuendo]].
!!Examples of kids trying out such troubling behavior for the first time:
[[folder: {{Anime}} / {{Manga}}]]
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' showed Sanji started his smoking habit at age nine trying to be more adult.
** There was also Ace and Sabo's aborted attempt on Luffy's life, complete with them arguing over who should do it because neither of them has ever killed anyone before.
* A little later, but in ''Manga/IchigoMashimaro'', Nobue started trying to smoke in middle school. It nauseated her when she first tried it, but she "powered through" until it didn't make her sick anymore, and now she's addicted. What started it all, however, is when a smoker left a pack behind on a park bench when Nobue was 11. Curious, she picked it up and looked at it. The warning label scared her off of starting for a while, although she did start holding a cigarette in her hand in an attempt to look cool.
[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In Belgian comic ''{{Violine}}'', the titular 10-year-old drinks whiskey and gets clearly drunk off it, when it's given to her as part of a celebration held by friendly natives in an African country.
[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In Chapter 14 of the ''{{Superjail}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/ExtendedStay'', the Warden and the Mistress, after getting worked up over their 4-year-old twins Matilda and Ethan running off, finally find them beating and whipping the inmates alongside Jailbot, NOVA, Alice and Bruce. Oddly enough, Warden convinces his wife that this means they are good parents and they actually decide to help their children [[KidsAreCruel beat the crap out of their victims]].
* Again in ''Film/{{Hounddog}}'', Lewellen is tricked into doing a naked dance for a much older man for Elvis tickets [[spoiler:and gets raped because of it]]. This carried over into RealLife, where many people were shocked that 12-year-old Dakota Fanning had played such a scene herself.
* O-Ren Ishii of ''Film/KillBill'' commits her first murder at the age of eleven, an incredibly bloody revenge upon Boss Matsumoto, who just two years earlier murdered both of her parents with the help of his men. And the reason that O-Ren was able to get close enough to Matsumoto to kill him? Matsumoto was a pedophile.
* A mailman is making his rounds, but one of his deliveries is a package that requires a signature. So he goes up to the house, knocks on the door, and a 12-year-old kid with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other answers it:
--> '''Mailman:''' Uh... hi. Are your parents home?
--> ''The kid takes a puff from the cigarette''
--> '''Kid:''' What the [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] do you think?
* In ''FreakTheMighty'''s sequel story, a girl nicknamed "Worm" ends up hitchhiking with the titular character of the sequel. And he promised his grandmother that he wouldn't do that.
* In the classic children's book ''NothingsFairInFifthGrade'', one of the main character's friends decides to hitchhike a ride to a local fair, as she's tired of walking. The rest of the kids are shocked, but go along so as not to get left behind. The hitchhiking adventure ends up having disastrous consequences for the kids. The man drives off away from their intended destination, and the kids jump out of his truck at a red light. But one of them, a 7-year-old, goes back for her purse which she forgot, and the truck drives off with her in it. Looking for a phone so they can call the police, the kids head towards the nearest building they can find: a tavern. Suffice to say everyone in the tavern finds the procession of fifth-graders and the one girl's 3-year-old brother to be a rather strange sight.
* In the novel ''OthersSeeUs'' the protagonists are quite startled when their grandmother insists they have a beer. [[spoiler: Though it's actually a trick to increase their psychic powers.]]
* In the JudyBlume children's novel ''Then Again Maybe I Won't'', main character Tony, his rich next door friend Joel and his old friend from the inner city, Frankie, are hanging out in Joel's basement when Joel jimmies into his father's liquor cabinet. The three boys get drunk. It was the first time Tony and Frankie had done this, but Joel had been drinking enough that he knew well the differences between the various kinds of alcohol.
* In ''HisDarkMaterials'', mention is made of Lyra and Rojer sneaking into Jordan College's wine cellar and trying "the oldest, twistiest bottle they could find". They both end up vomiting all over the place. Rojer questions the sanity of adults who enjoy drinking the stuff, while Lyra stubbornly declares that she ''likes'' it.
* Palpatine's youth was chronicled in ''Literature/DarthPlagueis'', and he was mentioned to have done enough delinquent stuff to have had his butt thrown in a reform facility had his father not paid off the authorities to if not let him get away with his crimes, then certainly lessen the punishment to be significantly less than it should be (eg, expulsion).
[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' episode "Lois Battles Jamie", there are two instances of this subtrope occurring. The first was Jamie trying to murder his mother by dropping a shelf on her (although it's subverted in that he's acting like this because his brother Reese fed him soda, which evidentially made himself uncontrollable). The second was with Francis in a flashback. When he was a toddler, Francis attempted to douse his teddy bear with lighter fluid and set it on fire (similar to certain people who kidnap other people) before Lois intervened.
* ''Series/{{Rome}}'' has Octavian, no older than his early teens, who calmly tortures a man to death at the instigation of an adult. Another adult takes him to a prostitute, and his older sister seduces him. He combines this trope with WiseBeyondTheirYears, which makes him even more unnerving.
** The torture scene is particularly telling, since Octavian actually seems more comfortable with it than the battle-hardened veteran he's working with, openly explaining to the victim that they're going to kill him either way, and telling them what they want to know will make it easier. When the victim still refuses, Octavian suggests cutting off his thumbs as a good way to get started.
* When we first see Mordred in Series/{{Merlin}}, he's a normal child, albeit telepathic. Then the next time we see him, his camp gets attacked and several knights are [[WouldHurtAChild about to take him back to Uther, who has drowned children in the past.]] He kills them. It's justified, but afterwards he just gives a small satisfied smile. Keep in mind this kid is 9 or younger, and has been raised by Gandhi-level pacifists.
* Early on in ''Series/{{The 100}}'', several characters have grudges against Wells because his father ordered their parents' executions. However, it's Charlotte, a twelve-year-old girl, who stabs him in the throat for revenge.
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': Rick's fear of what the post-apocalyptic world is doing to his son Carl's psyche is an ongoing subplot in seasons 2-4. In season 2 he wants to learn how to shoot guns, not unjustified given the setting, but his attempt at stealing one from Daryl causes his parents to question whether he's ready for the responsibility or not. Later, he takes a creepy interest in the idea of Rick having to execute Randall, even showing up at the barn to watch him do it (which is also what causes Rick to not be able to go through with it). In season 3 he insists he be the one to put down [[spoiler: his mother Lori]] to stop her from reanimating after her death, barely showing any emotion while doing so. In the finale he shoots and kills the surrendering Jody, initially claiming that Jody was planning to pull an ISurrenderSuckers but later admitting he felt that every time they've spared someone in the past it's come back to haunt them and that he "couldn't take the chance". This causes Rick to feel that Carl is becoming [[MurderIsTheBestSolution too okay with killing]], and he attempts to reevaluate their roles in the group to get Carl out of the fighting.
* From "Little Kids" by Deerhunter:
-->''kids drinking gin on the front lawn\\
the kids see that man walking down the dirt road\\
these kids see the sky and they think of him dressed in flames\\
kids walk behind, slowly stalk, that old man\\
these kids followed him to his shed\\
where he turns on the radio and smokes a cig\\
these kids come with gasoline and they strike a match''\\
[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Fanfic/{{Day of the Barney|Trilogy}}'' has [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] convince his fans, who are all young children, to kill any adult they can manage to. Specifically featured are two children offing their mother.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV", Dwight and Cubert take up smoking, robbery, and other activities to emulate Bender. It's played for laughs, and there are no dire consequences, but the kids do projectile vomit after smoking. Even better, their accomplice in this is [[HeartwarmingOrphan Tinny Tim]]. The robbery is his idea: "Gentle jerkwads! I know of a way we can emulate Bender ''without'' throwing up!" Best part: Tim's a robot, so alcohol shouldn't, logically, make him throw up anyway, because he runs on it, so this falls purely under RuleOfFunny.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'', Ben meets Kevin 11, an eleven year old boy who gambles and steals things. This is troubling enough, but Ben still thinks Kevin's a cool guy to hang out with...until Kevin is willing to use his energy absorbing powers to crash two subway trains together and take the cash from the wreckage. When Ben points out that "hundreds of people could DIE!", Kevin shrugs and says "Hey; no pain, no gain."
* Eggy the duckling in ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' absorbed the knowledge of all four of the penguin squad while still in his egg and became a TykeBomb obsessed with the commando life. His mother wasn't pleased.
* Shapey (and eventually Block) are shown playing with things like lighters and drills in ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' which Bloberta and Clay don't keep these things out of reach.
* Kevin from KevinSpencer, who's age throughout the series ranged from 14-17. Kevin has engaged in arson, theft, drinking, smoking, attempted murder, and several other crimes. His life pre-series was bad enough to get him into a correctional facility for the first season.
[[folder:Real Life]]
* According to ''The Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers'', 10% of serial killers make their first kill before the age of 10. And even if they haven't killed anyone just yet, there are often signs that something is not right about the child. Torturing animals and sadism are two common signs.
** An odd example is the case of Ted Bundy, one of America's most notorious serial killers. Although he didn't kill anyone (that we know of) in his childhood, there ''was'' that time when his aunt woke up to find her bedspread covered in knivesand little Teddy sitting beside the bed, '''''smiling up at her'''''...
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bell Mary Bell]] made her second at the age of 11, making her the youngest serial killer in history.
* The disturbing tale of 2 year-old [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger James Bulger's murder]] by two ''ten year-old boys''.
* About a dozen twelve year old religious Israeli girls in Hebron (town in the West Bank) decided to go into the Palestinian section of town one day and start harassing vendors in the market. The three Israeli soldiers on the scene (who lacked the power to arrest Israeli citizens) could not even touch the covered arms of the girls since the soldiers were all men (there's a religious taboo), and if the Palestinians had fought back, the soldiers might have had to arrest them, even knowing how ridiculous the situation was! Since police never came, all the outnumbered soldiers could do was try to stand between the girls and the vendors. Clearly, the girls had planned ahead and realized what they would be able to get away with considering the division between army and civilian control. This incident was not repeated.


text:
Santa Fe students, officials push transportation bill
Published February 24th, 2009
Santa Fe College President Jackson Sasser says student government leaders have pushed for a transportation fee for years.
And even though the move has failed in the past, Sasser says he's optimistic it will go through the Legislature this year.
Right now, the bill is sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Chestnut in the Florida House and by state Sen. Steve Oelrich in the Senate. If passed, it would only affect Santa Fe College.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Poor People Lose: Gideon and the Critique of RightsPaul D. ButlerGeorgetown University Law Center 2013 Yale Law Journal, Vol. 122, pp. 2176-2204, 2013 Abstract: A low income person is more likely to be prosecuted and imprisoned post-Gideon than pre-Gideon. Poor people lose in American criminal justice not because they have ineffective lawyers but because they are selectively targeted by police, prosecutors, and law makers. The critique of rights suggests that rights are indeterminate and regressive. Gideon demonstrates this critique: it has not improved the situation of most poor people, and in some ways has worsened their plight. Gideon provides a degree of legitimacy for the status quo. Even full enforcement of Gideon would not significantly improve the loser status of low-income people in American criminal justice. Number of Pages in PDF File: 30 Keywords: racial minorities, critique of rights, racial disparities, low-income people JEL Classification: K00, K30, K39 Date posted: July 27, 2013 ; Last revised: August 1, 2013Suggested CitationContact Information
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text:
McElroy completed 17-of-25 passes for 219 yards while Richardson had five catches for 101 yards, 11 rushes for 45 and three kickoff returns for 74 yards to help the Crimson Tide (6-1, 3-1 SEC) rebound from an upset loss to South Carolina last weekend that snapped their 19-game win streak.
Ole Miss (3-3, 1-2) was hampered by 12 penalties for 106 yards and Rebels quarterback Jeremiah Masoli connected on just 18-of-40 passes for 110 yards with one touchdown and an interception.
Ole Miss has won just once in 34 games at Alabama.